grit
See also: Grit
English
WOTD – 11 June 2016
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡɹɪt/
Audio (AU) (file) Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪt
Etymology 1
With early modern vowel shortening, from Middle English grete, griet, from Old English grēot, from Proto-Germanic *greutą.
Noun
a pile of grit set out for grouse, which the birds swallow to assist in digesting heather
grit (uncountable)
- A collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking.
- The flower beds were white with grit from sand blasting the flagstone walkways.
- Sand or a sand–salt mixture spread on wet and, especially, icy roads and footpaths to improve traction.
- Inedible particles in food.
- These cookies seem to have grit from nutshells in them.
- A measure of the relative coarseness of an abrasive material such as sandpaper, the smaller the number the coarser the abrasive.
- I need a sheet of 100 grit sandpaper.
- (geology) A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; gritstone. Also, a finer sharp-grained sandstone, e.g., grindstone grit.
- Strength of mind; great courage or fearlessness; fortitude.
- That kid with the cast on his arm has the grit to play dodgeball.
- 1861, Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth
- They came to a rising ground , not sharp , but long ; and here youth and grit and sober living told more than ever.
- 1880, Edwin Percy Whipple, Success and Its Conditions:
- If you are overcome by a man of grit, he insolently makes you conscious of your own weakness
- 1941 April, “Notes and News: Railwaymen and Snow”, in Railway Magazine, page 178:
- Although working under very unpleasant conditions they never grumbled, and to the end showed continuous grit; and in addition to this several examples of sheer heroism were displayed.
- 2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, it’s not hard to be humble in an effort to regain power”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 6 September 2015:
- But what their admirers call grit and critics deem shamelessness can overshadow another essential element of the Clinton school: a willingness to put on the hair shirt of humility to regain power.
Derived terms
- gritten
- gritty
Related terms
- grind
- grindstone
- sand, sandy, sandblasting
Translations
collection of hard materials
|
inedible particles in food
|
measure of coarseness
|
strength of mind
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See also
- debris
- mortar and pestle
- swarf
Verb
grit (third-person singular simple present grits, present participle gritting, simple past and past participle gritted or (nonstandard) grit)
- Apparently only in grit one's teeth: to clench, particularly in reaction to pain or anger.
- We had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with it.
- He has a sleeping disorder and grits his teeth.
- To cover with grit.
- (obsolete, intransitive) To give forth a grating sound, like sand under the feet; to grate; to grind.
- 1767, Oliver Goldsmith, The Hermit
- The sanded |floor that grits beneath the tread.
- 1767, Oliver Goldsmith, The Hermit
Derived terms
- grit one's teeth
Translations
to clench
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to cover with grit
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to give a grating sound
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Etymology 2
From Middle English *gryt (“bran, chaff”), from Old English grytt, from Proto-West Germanic *gruti (“coarsely ground bits”), ablaut variant of Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-. See above. Doublet of goetta.
Noun
grit (plural grits)
- (usually in the plural) Husked but unground oats.
- (usually in the plural) Coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge.
Related terms
- groat
- grout
- gruel
Translations
husked but unground oats
|
Anagrams
- girt, trig
Scots
Etymology
See great
Adjective
grit (comparative mair grit, superlative maist grit)
- great